Trapped
by Quill and Brush
Summary: Naruto decided, after the Miyuki Incident, to see if he could speak with the Fox in his stomach and get its story. This little chat goes better than he expected... or did it?
1. Chapter 1

"That's right, Naruto!" Mizuki growled, seeing the thoughts running across Naruto's eyes. "You are the Nine-Tailed Fox!"

Naruto froze, thoughts flying around his head and drowning out whatever his two teachers, Mizuki and Iruka, were arguing about. _'I'm the Nine-Tailed Fox? That explains so much. The glares, the people ignoring me, the calls of 'demon brat'. But, why me? Was there something I did, or my parents? Or was it just a case of bad timing? I'd better go talk to the old man; he'll explain things to me.'_ And with that, the twelve year old took off, the Scroll of Sealing strapped to his back, away from his teachers and back towards the village.

Now contrary to popular belief, Naruto Uzumaki, the local troublemaker and 'demon brat' of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, was not an idiot. In fact, he was rather smart. Smart enough to realize that the majority of the village didn't like him, and some went out of their way to stunt his growth. He had, several years ago, decided that he would hide his intelligence under a mask of childish innocence. He accomplished this by suppressing his darker emotions, such as anger and sadness, through great mental fortitude.

Naruto was joined shortly by Iruka but was still lost in his own thoughts. After Iruka's third failed attempt at gaining Naruto's attention, he decided to just follow Naruto to wherever it was he was going. He followed the boy back into town and towards the center of town and the Hokage Tower, impressively dodging all the ANBU patrols and scattered search teams. In fact, the only person besides Iruka to see Naruto was the Hokage when Naruto burst into his office.

The Hokage just sat there behind his desk, as if waiting for the two of them to arrive. Naruto walked up to the Hokage's desk and pulled the large scroll off of his back and placed it down in front of the Hokage, muttering "Sorry, old man" under his breath.

The Hokage just waved the apology off, saying, "It's alright, Naruto, but I would like to have a talk with you in a moment, if you don't mind." Naruto nodded and sat down on the couch at the other end of the room, still deep in thought. The Hokage summoned an ANBU with a wave of his hand, saying "Go, call off the search." The ANBU nodded and body flickered away, and the Hokage returned his attention to Iruka. "Now, Iruka, if you don't mind, I'd like a debriefing."

Iruka nodded. "Well, when you sent us out to find Naruto, I tracked him down to a clearing in one of the more heavily forested training grounds, and found him sitting against a tree. He was tired, and wasn't scared or nervous to see me. He said that Mizuki told him that he could pass his genin exam if he stole the scroll and learned a jutsu from it. Right about then, Mizuki showed up and began to monologue, explaining his plan to get Naruto to steal the scroll, take it from him, and kill him. He said something about Orochimaru, I'm not quite sure what, though. He then told Naruto about the Fox, and Naruto froze. Mizuki was about to attack Naruto when he took off, catching Mizuki off guard and allowing me to apprehend him. I have him in a prisoner scroll." He reached up to his chunin vest and pulled a scroll from a pocket, placing it on the desk. "I then went after Naruto and caught up to him rather quickly. He seemed to be deep in thought, and didn't respond to me, but he was heading into town, so I didn't stop him, but followed him. Then we arrived here."

The Hokage nodded. "Good, one last thing before you're dismissed." Iruka nodded. "Do you believe that Naruto should be made a genin?"

After barely a moment's hesitation, Iruka nodded. "I do, Lord Hokage."

The Hokage smiled. "Good, good. That will be all, Iruka." The teacher nodded and left, glancing towards Naruto as he did so.

Once the door shut behind Iruka, the Hokage sighed and slumped down into his chair. "Naruto," the old man sighed, no longer acting as the military dictator of the village, but instead the loving, though weary, grandfather. "What am I going to do with you?" After a moment of silence, the Hokage looked over to see Naruto still deep in thought. "Naruto?" Still gaining no response, the Hokage sighed and stood, making his way over to sit next to the boy. The Hokage then placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder, finally causing the boy to stir.

"Sorry, old man," he began. "I'm just thinking about things."

"It's quite alright," the Hokage responded. "With what you've been through tonight, I'm surprised you were able to get back here at all." At that, Naruto glanced up with a slight smile on his face. "There, that's better." His smile grew. "Now, what is it you're thinking about so deeply?"

Naruto's face fell slightly. "I was just thinking about what Mizuki-sen – what Mizuki said. Was he right? Am I the Nine-Tailed Fox?"

The Hokage sighed. "He was only partially right, my boy." This piqued his curiosity. "He was right about the fact that the Fourth Hokage sealed the Fox in you, as it could not be killed." Naruto's face fell again. "But! He was wrong about the fact that you are the Fox. You are not the Fox." Naruto turned wide, wet eyes towards the Hokage. "The word we use to describe people with your condition – and yes, there are others – is jinchūriki. You are Naruto Uzumaki, and you are the only thing standing between the Nine-Tailed Fox and the Leaf Village. Without you, this village would very likely have perished that night twelve years ago."

Naruto lunged at the Hokage, pulling him into a hug and letting tears flow due to the increased emotion. The old man, taken by surprise, hesitated for a moment before returning the hug. After a few minutes of silence, Naruto pulled away and looked up at the Hokage. "Thank you, old man."

"It's my pleasure, Naruto. Now, is there anything else you wanted to ask me about?"

After a moment's hesitation, Naruto asked, "Why me?"

The Hokage sighed. "You were one of the few children born that night, and the sealing had to be performed on a newborn. The Fourth asked your parents to give you for the sealing because he trusted them with his life, and thus you were the only one he could trust with the Fox. Your mother died that night due to complications from childbirth and your father died fighting the Fox. I knew them both well, and I knew that they both loved you. For nine months you were all that they talked about. Before you ask, I can't tell you their names, because they were both powerful ninja who both made many enemies, and I don't want to put you in danger because of your parents. I will tell you more about them when you make chūnin." Naruto nodded, slightly downcast, but happy nonetheless. He got answers! "Anything else?"

Naruto thought for a moment. "Do you, or anyone, I guess, know why the Fox attacked?"

The Hokage thought for a moment, before shaking his head. "We don't know for sure, but the best theory we've come up with is that it was angry about being used by Madara Uchiha and had just then come back for revenge."

Naruto thought on this for a moment. "Is there any way for me to ask it?"

This caught the Hokage off guard. "Um, I am unsure. If it's possible, you would need to meditate and enter your mindscape, from there it should be relatively easy to find it. But, again, I don't know. Any other questions?" Naruto shook his head. "Well, then, one last thing before you go." Naruto nodded and the Hokage stood and returned to his desk, where he opened a drawer and pulled out a Leaf Village forehead protector on a blue cloth. He returned to sit beside Naruto, whose jaw was slack. "For exceptional work for the village in helping to stop a traitor, along with proving your skills with a simulated infiltration mission, I, Hiruzen Sarutobi, present this forehead protector to Naruto Uzumaki as proof of his graduation from the Leaf Village Ninja Academy."

Naruto took the forehead protector gingerly, almost reverently, and, removing his goggles, tied it in the traditional style around his head.

"Now, Naruto," the Hokage began again, drawing the boy from his awe. "You need to be at the Academy in a week's time for team assignments, okay?"

Naruto nodded, grinning, before jumping up and running out of the office, shouting "You're the best, old man!" over his shoulder as he ran.

* * *

After returning home, and a late night ramen run, Naruto sat on his bed, in his night clothes, prepared for sleep but set on meditating and speaking to the Fox first. He settled into a lotus position and quickly fell into his subconscious.

* * *

Naruto opened his eyes to see he was no longer in his apartment, but had somehow ended up in a dark, dank tunnel. "A sewer?" He glanced down and noticed that he was wearing his everyday clothes. "Huh. I coulda sworn I was just meditating on my bed." After another moment of looking around, Naruto's eyes widened in realization. "Is this that mindscape place that the old man was talking about? Then why is my mind a sewer?" He quickly shook off his confusion and began to look around for the Fox. "Well, there's only two ways to go, so I might as well just pick one." And so he did.

After what felt like forever walking through the tunnel, he found himself in a large room with golden bars spanning from the floor to the ceiling across the middle of the room. On the center bar was a slip of paper with the kanji for seal. Before Naruto had a chance to do more than glance around, two large blood-red eyes opened up from behind the cage. "So," a deep voice echoed from behind the bars. "My jailer finally comes for a visit. To what do I owe this honor?"

Naruto, stunned by the Fox, shook himself out after a moment. "I, uh, came to talk." After a pause, with no response, Naruto continued. "I wanted to know why you attacked the village twelve years ago."

The Fox stayed silent for a long moment, so long that it began to truly unnerve the boy. Just as Naruto opened his mouth to say something more, he was silenced by a deep chuckle. The chuckling slowly grew into full blown laughter, making Naruto back away in discomfort and fear. "You want to know why I attacked. You, a mere mortal, wish to understand my motives!" The Fox's booming laughter became even louder, shaking the entire room and Naruto to the core.

After a while the laughter died down, allowing Naruto to respond. "Yes, I do."

This slightly shocked the Fox. "The fact that I'm an evil demon isn't enough for you?" At the shake of Naruto's head, the Fox sighed, gaining a slight smile. "You're different from all the others. Very well, I will tell you. I was caught off guard and trapped in a genjutsu that forced me to do the caster's bidding. By the time I was able to snap myself out of it, I was being dragged into this god forsaken seal by your Fourth Hokage."

Naruto thought about this for a minute. "So… you didn't want to attack the village?"

The Fox began to respond but stopped himself. He was quiet for a moment, seemingly deep in thought. "No," it began slowly. "No, I didn't want to attack the village."

Naruto stood there for a moment, waiting for more from the Fox, but after a period of silence, he brought up an idea. "Would you be willing to help me?" This got a look of confusion from the Fox. "Like, would you be willing to train me, lend me chakra, help me be a better ninja?"

After a moment of silence, in which the Fox looked thoughtful, a smile spread across his face. "Sure, kit. But in order for me to really help you, you need to come here and rip this paper from the cage." Naruto nodded and, without thinking twice, ran up and yank the seal off. As soon as it was free, Naruto's senses left him, the last thing he sensed being the sound of the Fox's deep laughter.


	2. Chapter 2

Iruka stood at the front of his classroom, watching his now former students interact with each other. They all seemed to be having a good time, but one seemed to be missing. Iruka sighed, _'Naruto will be late again. Oh well, I can't hold up the rest of the class for one kid.'_ Just as Iruka was about to yell for attention to begin class, the door to the classroom was thrown open, revealing what appeared to be his last student.

Stepping through the sliding door was Naruto Uzumaki. He had changed his apparel from his bright orange jumpsuit; he now wore black ninja pants, tucked into black combat boots, a black jacket with the kanji for kitsune on the back in dark red and a white spiral on the shoulder, a dark red muscle shirt, and a forehead protector with the kanji for nine on a black cloth. His whisker marks had thickened slightly, his eyes had darkened from a sky blue to a deep indigo, his canines now protruded from his grinning mouth, and the tips of his hair had changed to a deep red.

Naruto glanced around the room, before stalking up the stairs and pulling out an empty seat in the back of the room, sitting down, leaning it against the wall, and throwing his feet up on the desk. He glanced around one more time, taking in the shocked looks of the entire class, before his smirk grew. "Well, don't stop on my account, teach."

Iruka shook himself out of trying to make sense of this, and began his lecture on what it means to be a genin. Halfway through this, Naruto felt a prodding on his mind. Smirking, he let it in and dropped into his mind with it.

* * *

Naruto glanced around his mindscape, feeling for the foreign presence. He followed his senses and found it in the form of one Ino Yamanaka glancing around at her surroundings. Naruto smirked at his fellow blonde. "Well, now," he began, causing the girl to jump. "What's a pretty thing like you doing in a place like this?"

Ino cringed, not expecting Naruto's mind to look like this, nor to have as much resistance as she did. "W-well," she began. "I noticed you were acting different when you walked in, and it intrigued me, so I decided to investigate."

"I caught the attention of Miss Popular, huh?" Naruto grinned. "Well, feel free to look around. I have nothing to hide."

Ino shivered a little. This new Naruto was giving her the creeps! "Can I ask you a question?" Getting a nod, she continued. "Why is your mind so… grim?"

And it was, even more so than before. The sewer had lost much of the little light it had, and there was now blood flowing down the walls and dripping from the ceiling to pool on the floor. Naruto shrugged. "I had a bad childhood." This caused Ino to shiver again.

"Well, I guess I'll just… explore now." Naruto nodded and followed Ino as she walked. They walked through Naruto's hall of memories, Ino becoming increasingly depressed as they viewed each one.

At the end of the hall, Naruto came to a stop, his ever-present smirk dropping. "I can't go any further than this, and I wish you wouldn't either."

Ino spun around at this. "Why not, what's back there?"

Naruto shook his head. "I can't say. I don't mind if you keep looking, but I'm going back out to see where Iruka's at in his speech." Ino nodded and watched as Naruto disappeared.

"Now that he's gone, I'm not sure if that's better or worse." Ino shivered again, before looking down the hallway deeper into Naruto's mind. "Well, I've come this far…"

Ino walked for a long time, finally coming to the end of the hall, what appeared to be a cage door. "Is this where he keeps his fears?" she wondered out loud.

"Kinda," the response came from inside the cage, shocking Ino, because the voice was not evil or mean or anything, in fact, it sounded sad. "Except his fears aren't normal."

After a moment to compose herself, Ino asked, "What do you mean by that?"

A figure stepped up to the door, shocking Ino. It was Naruto as she knew him during their days at the Academy. "I assume you saw all the memories?" At her nod, the Naruto in front of her continued. "When I was really little, I was forced to lock away my darker emotions to keep from … snapping, I guess. About a week ago, those darker emotions broke free and locked me, the lighter emotions away. He fears himself, he doesn't want to be locked away again. And I don't blame him, this week has been hell."

Ino smiled sadly, ashamed that she was a part of several of the bad memories she had seen. "Ohh, Naruto, I'm sorry for all I've put you through these last few years. Is there anything I can do to help you?"

This shocked Naruto, because throughout their Academy years, Ino had always been stuck up and rather mean to him. "Honestly," he began hesitantly. "The worst part is the loneliness. The other me doesn't talk to me, and I can't see outside."

"I can help with that!" Ino exclaimed. "I can set up a mental link between me and you so we can talk even if I'm not here. You'll need to work on getting the other you to talk to you, cause you really need to become the same person again. It's healthier that way. My dad's seen cases like this, though never this extreme, and he's told me a little about it."

Naruto was nodding along with Ino as she talked, smiling sadly. Once she finished, he responded. "Can you really set it up so we can talk?" At her nod, his smile got bigger.

His smile was contagious, and Ino smiled right along with him. She walked up to the cage and put her hand through it and put it on Naruto's forehead. She closed her eyes for a moment, concentrating, before retracting her hand and smiling again. "There, all done!" After watching Naruto celebrate a little, Ino gasped. "I need to go, Naruto. Iruka-sensei's probably about done with his lecture." Seeing Naruto's crushed expression nearly made her cry. "But don't worry! We can still talk through our link and I can come visit you here without needing to get close to the other you."

Naruto brightened up, and the two said their goodbyes while Ino faded from view.

* * *

Ino came to to find Iruka still droning on about being a genin, and sighed in relief; she hadn't missed anything important. Nearly as soon as she sat up from her slumped position, Iruka finished his speech, saying "I will now announce the formation of the teams." Ino, like the majority of the class, tuned him out, only listening for their own names.

She spent this time pondering the discoveries that she had made, before sighing. _'I wonder what Naruto, the old one, not the creepy one, is doing now.'_

_"Not much,"_ a voice echoed through her mind, nearly making her jump out of her seat and give a startled yelp, before she realized that it was the Naruto that she made a connection with.

_'Geez, Naruto, you scared me.'_

_"Oh, um, I'm sorry, I thought you were asking me a question."_ Naruto's dejected tone made Ino tear up and nearly made her cry out, but she didn't quite understand why.

Ino quickly backtracked. _'No, no, no, no, no. It's my fault. I was just startled is all, I didn't realize that our link let us read each other's thoughts.'_

_"Oh…" _ Naruto began in a much happier tone, relieving Ino greatly. _"What did you think it would do?"_

_'I thought that it would be more intentional. Like, I would have to think about talking to you for you to hear it.'_ This earned a slightly confused 'ahh' from Naruto. _'Can you hear what I hear?'_

_"Kinda, I can tell that you can hear things, but I can't tell what."_

Ino was about to respond when she heard Naruto's name called. "…Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha. Team 8 will be Hinata Hyūga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame. There is still a Team 9 in circulation. Team 10 will be Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Chōji Akimichi. Your jōnin sensei will be introduced this afternoon, so you have an hour for lunch before you need to be back. You should spend this time getting to know your new teammates. Dismissed." And with that, Iruka turned and left the room.

_'Naruto?'_ Ino began.

_"Yeah?"_

_'You're on a team with Sakura and Sasuke. I'm with Shikamaru and Chōji. I guess I should have seen that coming.'_

_"Why?"_

_'Well, our clans have always had good teamwork, and our dads were one of the best teams of their generation, so it's not surprising that they would put us together.'_

_"Oh, okay."_

_'So, what –'_

"Ino!" Ino jumped, being brought out of her mental conversation by her lazy teammate.

"What do you want, Shikamaru?" Ino shouted, spinning around to glare at said genin.

Shikamaru sighed and muttered a "troublesome" before saying, "You've been sitting here ignoring us for the last five minutes. We've been waiting for you so we could eat lunch together, but Chōji's starting to get hungry."

Ino paled, she could still feel the fear from the last time the big boned powerhouse got truly hungry. She was able to suppress her shudder and bring some color back to her face before she huffed to cover her embarrassment. "Well, fine then, let's go."

She stormed out of the room, followed by a happily hungry Chōji and a Shikamaru mumbling "troublesome".

* * *

_'That was surprisingly easy,'_ Ino commented to Naruto through their mental link. She was now walking back to her house after her new team's first meeting.

_"What was?"_ Naruto's slightly childish voice responded.

_'Well,'_ Ino smiled. _'When our new sensei showed up, he told us that we weren't actually genin yet, we had to pass a test the he gave us in order to be his team.'_

_"What kinda test?"_

_'Asuma-sensei said that our team was designed to be a capture and interrogation team, so for our test we had to chase and capture him. It wasn't very hard, as soon as he said go, he ran off into the trees at the edge of the training ground, and we just had to catch up. When we did, Chōji was able to cut him off using his clan's hidden jutsu, and then Shikamaru caught him in his Shadow Possession Jutsu, and then I used my Mind Body Switch Jutsu and walked Asuma-sensei back to the clearing where we started, and the other two tied me up, and then I returned to my own body. When he woke up, he told us that we passed.'_

_"Sweet, it sounds like your team's awesome!"_

Naruto's excited shout caused Ino to break out into a fit of giggles. _'Well, thank you for your vote of confidence. Now, tonight, I need to figure out how to help you.'_

After getting an emphatic _"Okay!"_ from her mental visitor, Ino sped up in an effort to help her new friend sooner.


End file.
